As temperatures start to drop, September usually reminds us that summer is at an end and fall is now here. Sunshine is predominant though as the month actually has the highest percentage of sun out of any month. Sunny days and clear, cool nights are the standard weather pattern for the month.

Normal highs on the first of the month are 84 degrees with a low of 54. By the end of the month we see those high temperatures drop to an average of 72 and the lows get to a chilly 42. Overall the month averages 63.4 degrees.

In some years summer hangs on as late as the end of September - right to the last day of the month.

September 30, 1980 saw a record high temperature of 90 degrees. 97 degrees is the hottest temperature ever recorded for the month - that happening on four occasions, the most recently on September 1st and 4th in 1995. Interestingly enough, all but four days of the month have recorded record highs in the 90s! The ones that haven't - the 21st, 22nd, 24th and 28th - have record temperatures pretty close of either 88 or 89 degrees.

All that sounds great for lovers of warm weather but winter too can make appearances in September. The coldest temperature ever recorded in September was a winter-like 17 degrees on September 29, 1985. Temperatures below freezing have been recorded as early as September 8th and in fact the record low temperature for 21 of September's 30 days is at or below freezing.

Snow is not unheard of in September and it can appear early on in the month. The earliest measurable snow happened on September 3, 1961 when 4 inches of the white stuff fell at the old Stapleton International Airport and the mercury dropped to 33 degrees.

The snowiest September on record occurred in 1971 which 17.2 inches of snow was recorded over the entire month. Winter really hit home in 1985 when on September 29th, 9 inches of snow fell and Denver had a low of 17 degrees and a high of 29.

In the 131 years since Denver began keeping records of snowfall, 45 Septembers have recorded snow. Of those, 28 had measureable snowfall at or above 0.1" while the rest had a trace. have passed without a trace of snow. At the current time, Denver has gone 13 Septembers in a row without snow being recorded with the last being in September 2000 when 0.2 inch was recorded.

September usually brings an end to the monsoon flow from the southwest and instead moisture will oftentimes move in from the Pacific. The chance for thunderstorms still exists in September but they are infrequent, particularly in the latter half of the month, and severe ones are pretty rare.

In conclusion, September can bring just about anything but the odds do favor a beautiful month.

The latest long range outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center portend a bit of a mixed bag for Colorado. The western third of the state is likely to see above normal temperatures while the balance of the state, including the Front Range, is given equal chance of at, above or below normal temperatures. In terms of precipitation, the CPC gives the southwest half of the state an above average chance of seeing above normal precipitation and the far northeast corner looks to be dry. We lie in the middle with equal chances of at, above or below levels of precipitation.